Breast cancer is the most common cancer afflicting females. Although there exist treatments for curing breast cancer, a significant percentage of such treatment fail.
As with most cancers, the likelihood of success in treatment depends in part on how early the cancer is detected. Conventional methods of detecting breast cancer rely on self-examination and/or mammograms for screening, followed in some cases by biopsies. A biopsy is an invasive procedure that can result in patient discomfort. Moreover, it is a time-consuming and resource-intensive procedure. It is therefore not the method of choice for screening large populations.
A known non-invasive method for detecting breast cancer is to perform MRI on the breast. MRI, however, is a resource-intensive procedure that, because of poor specificity, result in more false alarms than mammography. In addition, MRI is not completely non-invasive since it requires injection of a chemical agent.